Jack sat watching Ianto go about his work across the Hub. It wasn't just that Ianto was physically attractive – though he was that as well. There was something more to him, something that drew Jack in like a moth to a flame. For a long time, he'd wondered what exactly it was. Then, he decided to give up wondering and just enjoy it. Whatever it is, it made him happy. And that was a hell of a lot more than Jack could say for most anything in the last few decades.
Deep down, Jack knew he loved Ianto. And that absolutely terrified him. He wished he could do something to show Ianto how he felt without having to say it. He wished he could take him dancing on an invisible space ship or transport him to the "Pillars of Creation" of the Eagle Nebula and such wonders. He wished he could show him the far reaches of the universe… and he wished he had forever to do it.
But that was the problem. He knew Ianto would leave him one day, most likely sooner than later. And, fact was, that would destroy him. Jack felt he had to try to hold something back, to keep a part of himself unscarred – impossible as he knew that was.
No, Ianto had touched him in places no one else ever had, and, ironically, he'd done it mostly by holding back and giving Jack his space. By never asking for more than Jack offered. By being the silent support that Jack could melt into at day's end and not have to think until the next day/crisis.
Jack owed him more, so much more, and he knew it. Maybe it was ok to start small. Like that date he'd offered. And there was no time like the present, Jack decided, standing up and marching directly out of his office to intercept Ianto's coffee-cup-clean-up route.